ZoneAlarm works well, as does the Linksys router. I use both. I found that the difference in the cost of power between the Linksys (10W) and a PC with 2 NICs (about 100W for a 5x86/133) paid for the Linksys in about 2 years. I also found the appended review to be most interesting. ONLY Zonealarm is immune to all common hacks, and it's FREE! I use ZA's log files to complain to the various big ISP's whose clients bang away at my machine (I get at -least- 50 hits/day from people looking for open windows shares, since one machine is in the DMZ and specifically collecting attack information). Robert -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Steve Gibson's December/2000 News from GRC.COM ... Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 16:41:39 -0800 From: "Steve Gibson's MailBot" _________________________________________________________________ Significant Security Vulnerability Revealed in Almost ALL PC Personal Software Firewalls NEW Firewall "LeakTest" freeware from me! _________________________________________________________________ I have not written to you for five months because I haven't had any really BIG news (until now) and I never want my eMail to be irrelevant or annoying to you. I am committed to NEVER abusing your trust. Today's BIG news is the release of my latest freeware: 'LeakTest' LeakTest is used to check your firewall's vulnerability to an extremely common and easily exploited design flaw revealed by this test. At this time, EVERY FIREWALL BUT ONE is vulnerable to this danger, and some are more vulnerable than others. Our new LeakTest page, accessible through the link below and also from our site's home page, provides the whole story and the means to download my new and compact (27k byte) LeakTest freeware: LeakTest Page The LeakTest page also contains links to our very active public newsgroup forum (freeware.leaktest) at grc.com. This group is discussing the LeakTest issue and comparing firewall behavior. You can quickly find any help or further clarifications you may need within this group. Other News: 1. NANOPROBE: I have been working on an incredibly exciting new Internet security testing technology, known as NanoProbe. It is not yet completed, but you will certainly be among the first to know when it is. The following page contains background: NanoProbe Page 2. FILE DOWNLOADER SPYING: The last note I sent to you revealed the privacy breaches inherent in many popular file download accelerators. Thanks to YOUR SUPPORT on this issue, every vendor of those programs immediately updated their software to remove this spying behavior. THANK YOU for working with me to let them know that this behavior was NOT ALL RIGHT with you! 3. OPTOUT and AD-AWARE: I decided that my long-term plans for OptOut were wrong: Rather than scanning the user's system for Spyware, I should check the user's system for its firewall's VULNERABILITY to known AND unknown spyware. This is the initiative I am now launching with LeakTest. But there is STILL a very pressing need for a high-quality spyware scanner. I can recommend -- without reservation -- the EXCELLENT, comprehensive, and completely FREE Spyware scanning and removal tool by LavaSoft: 'Ad-Aware' Ad-Aware _________________________________________________________________ Thank you for your time. I hope this has been useful to you. Steve Gibson. GRC Website -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body